When Red Army troops entered Berlin's Jewish Hospital in April 1945, they were astonished to find hundreds of Jews living just a couple of miles from Hitler's bunker. "You are Jews? Not possible. You can't be Jews, the Jews are all dead," a Russian soldier reportedly exclaimed.

Founded in 1756, the hospital moved to its current location in the Wedding district before World War I. Initially open to all patients regardless of faith, it was barred from treating "Aryan" patients after the Nazis came to power in 1933.

A controversial figure in the hospital's wartime history is Walter Lustig. Born into a Jewish family in 1891, he became the hospital's director in 1942. Some view him as a hero who protected children, while others see him as a collaborator who allowed deportations and allegedly sexually abused women.

In June 1943, the Reich Association of Jews was dissolved, and its successor, the Residual Reich Association, was headquartered at the hospital. The hospital housed a shelter for Jewish orphans and a transit camp for deportations.

In the final days of the war, the Gestapo ordered the execution of all Jews in the camps. However, Jewish former bank clerk Curt Naumann, who worked at the hospital, managed to convince an SS officer that the order was actually a release order, saving about 180 inmates.

On April 24, 1945, Soviet troops and Red Cross workers entered the hospital to find 370 patients, 1,000 residents, 93 children, and 76 prisoners. The hospital continues to operate to this day.

After the war, Walter Lustig was arrested by Soviet intelligence and is believed to have been executed as a Nazi collaborator.

Source: www.dw.com